EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in Science, Medicine, Health and Healing in the 21st Century. This site will sift through the vast amount of confusing data and simplify issues that are of interest to everyone interested in a healthy life and longevity. The writings on EverythingHealth are entirely my own views and opinions.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Eating Pistachios May Help Reduce Cardiovascular Events

A new study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says eating pistachio nuts decreased total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol compared with a control diet that had no nuts.

One of the control groups was fed a step 1 (low fat) diet without pistachios. Two other groups were fed the same diet with low doses of pistachios (32-63 gms/day) and high doses of pistachio nuts (63-126 gms/day). The pistachios were low salt and were fed as snacks and incorporated into recipes.

There was a significant lowering of total and LDL cholesterol in the pistachio diet groups and it was dose related with the higher pistachio intake having a greater effect. The authors concluded that the magnitude of reduction in LDL cholesterol for the high-dose pistachio eaters was equivalent to that of statins and would result in a 9-12% reduction in heart disease risk.

It should be noted that the study group was small (10 women and 18 men) and the study was sponsored by a grant from the California Pistachio Commission along with the NIH and other funders.

I wonder if eating pistachio ice-cream will have the same beneficial effect?

(Addendum: I just looked up the calories in 1 cup of pistachio nuts - 685 yikes!)

About Me

I am an Internal Medicine physician who has practiced for over 25 years in Northern California. I was previously the President of the SF Medical Society and Chief of Staff at a large academic medical center. I am currently the Chief Executive Officer for a large Physician and health care provider group in Northern
California. My practice is smaller now
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